un•rest
CounterPulse Festival
Oakland CA
September 2021
Written, directed, and produced by
curbAlert
(J Shelley Harrison + Emji Saint Spero)
Co-writers
Dana Iwaniec
LOTUS BOY
Featuring
Alexander Paris
LOTUS BOY
Frida Ibarra
Videographer
Alsea Raible
ASL Interpreters
Kevin Abrams
Nicole Carlos Watson
Crew
Holden Wood
Livestream
Joel Gregory
Special thanks to Brontez Purnell for consulting on choreography, to Mama Celeste for consulting on outreach and promo, and to Tiare Ribeaux for assistance with art direction.
We are on the cusp of something much bigger than us. All of us. One might just call this a very large…very queer…collaboration.
un•rest is a play in three acts, a roving performance that engages the margins of public space to explore, question, and break down the intricacies of intimacy in queer communities. A shift that takes place at Oakland’s Estuary Channel Park...very close to the water...but not quite the Port of Oakland. this space creates its own boundaries. Well...actually...the site is just the beginning. a portal into a queer collective consciousness. This performance is an invitation...for movement...a discussion. an invitation to acknowledge sites of struggle. realities that live, like us, in the in-betweens.
To survive we must learn to adapt, to anticipate. To live in spaces of vulnerability. We are building a language for the shades of our intimacies, together…one that is continually evolving, one that does not shy away from discomfort.
curbAlert is a collaboration between J Shelley Harrison and Emji Saint Spero. We curate site-specific performances, interactive events, and roving installations. Our work aims to disrupt the tired relationship between audience and performer and to reimagine new modes of interacting. We create conditions that invite the unexpected and cultivate openness and odd intimacy as a practice of social engagement. curbAlert is the built environment and our resistance to it. We explore how our movements and interactions shape our environment and how it shapes us.
Collaborators
Alexander Paris (they/them) is a multidisciplinary writer, performer, visual artist, and curator. The work they create exists at the intersection of autofiction and surrealism. They are drawn towards world building, deconstructed narratives, high camp, futurism, meta theatrics, and nostalgia.
LOTUS BOY (ze/they/he & sometimes she) is a shapeshifting, mixed-race transgender Chinese American drag king who is disabled and proud. He is currently based in occupied Tamyen Ohlone territory. Ze channels messages from zir ancestors and their Highest Self about anger, healing, and hope. With every performance, ze hopes to help you learn or unlearn something, and/or make you laugh.
Frida Ibarra (she/her) is a multimedia musician, composer, and DJ based in the Bay Area. As a composer, Frida creates original music for filmmakers, content creators, and performance artists in her community.
Dana Iwaniec (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist/performer. Utilizing humour, and confrontation, and mindbending wordplay, she pushes audiences to expand their conceptions surrounding gender and sexuality, illuminating underrepresented aspects of the transgender experience.
ASL Interpreters
Nicole Carlos-Watson (she/they) is a novice ASL interpreter from the East Bay Area, California— the land of the Ohlone people. As a proud third-generation Filipinx-Amerikan & non-binary femme, Nicole is passionate about serving intersectional gender expansive BIPOC Deaf and Disabled communities. Nicole works with social justice organizers, performing arts production companies, and cultural heritage nonprofits outside of the interpreting field.
Born in Florida, but Raised by the World, (by way of Texas), Kevin Abrams (Iman) has just recently celebrated a decade of being in the Bay Area! Now centered in Oakland, they continue to shine and grow as an entertainer. They area in the education field and are operating as a Deaf Interpreter. They have interpreted several shows and productions in The Bay Area including Oaklash 2022/2023, Reparations at Oasis, and a host of other shows.
Crew
Alsea Raible (she/her) a trans woman from rural Oregon with a background in film production, has spent her entire career at the intersection of art and social change engaging underserved communities and audiences. She has collaborated on films that have screened at TIFF, Tribeca, and Cannes and has worked extensively in the field of independent film distribution.
Holden Wood, “half James Dean, half the swamp monster that ate James Dean”, has been trampsing around the Bay Area, sneaking onto any poorly guarded stage he can for the past year. When he’s not eating dirt or throwing coal at audience members, Holden dedicates his time to advocating for drag both as an art form and a means of gender exploration and expression.
Deontré Martin (open pronouns) is a dj, curator and visual artist. The work they create grew from an inspiration to fill spaces (dance floors, meeting spaces, and art parties) with their own iteration of visually/aurally pleasing fodder upon which to chew. They believe in love in all it’s forms, connections, and softness tempered with genuine strength as a way of moving through the world.